Restaurant Deals Signed To Increase Saudization Level To 30%

The Ministry of Labor and Social Development has signed an agreement with the Association of the Restaurants and Cafes and the Human Resources Development Fund (Hadaf) to support the sector.

According to the agreement, about 50,000 Saudis will receive support to work in restaurants and cafes, increasing their ratio in the sector to about 30%, the Arabic daily Al-Watan reported on Saturday quoting the ministry›s sources.

The sources said at present 36,542 Saudis, including 1,156 women, work in restaurants, representing only about 13% of the manpower in the sector.

They said the sector employed a total of 289,491 people, about 87% of them non-Saudi. The non-Saudis working in the sector consisted of 249,361 men and 3,588 women.

The sources said the ministry and its partners are attempting to increase the number of Saudi workers in the sector to 86,542 or about 30% of the total workforce.

They said 11,498 Saudis work as managers and 6,707 as specialists, representing about 31.5%, while 10,840 work as professionals, 4,385 as technicians and 3,112 as labourers.

The sources said as many as 109,898 non-Saudis, representing 43.4%, work as laborers, 21,591 as managers, 25,052 as specialists, 24,651 as technicians and 71,757 as professionals.